Category Archives: Experiences

Flamenco!

I love Flamenco! The guitar sounds at its best, the dance is powerful yet expressive, and the singing just fits in and sounds like nothing else.

When we heard our friend Sol Acuña was performing her A Tierra Show we were eager to see what this Costa Rican dancer or “bailaora” living in Seville had brought to us: her choreography and also the music played by the group turned out to be superb. Continue reading Flamenco!

Multiple Exposures at the Beads Shop

Having fun is what photography is about. On difficult assignments we all sweat and bite our lips but, when nothing is at stake, then we all can enjoy our art and even play with the unexpected. Continue reading Multiple Exposures at the Beads Shop

High Pass Over the Nazca Lines

One of the highlights of a trip to Peru is a flight over the Nazca Lines: Take a double dose of motion sickness pills, jump on a tiny airplane and enjoy the view… or camera in hand shoot as much as possible during the 40 minutes flight. Continue reading High Pass Over the Nazca Lines

Frame and wait!

Sometimes, when we find a beautiful setting, we take our camera, compose the picture and eagerly shoot a photo. We then check the LCD’s preview and see that the photo looks fine but there is something important missing from the image. It could be a balancing feature or a pattern-breaking element. Many times what the photo needs is a human or dynamic connection and if we cannot find it we walk away with an incomplete image. Continue reading Frame and wait!

Photographer’s block or just bad luck?

Have you ever gone out to take pictures and you just don’t make any? It’s happened to me a few times. Yesterday the afternoon looked nice and I went on the road to nearby Irazu volcano to photograph nice clouds and the landscape below. I don’t know if I was just too focused in this particular type of image or the weather did not help  but I spent the first two hours wandering around without seeing any images. Continue reading Photographer’s block or just bad luck?

Will our photos stand out in the crowd?

Double exposure photo of the Empire State Building and the One World Trade Center.
Trying to show your vision among the crowd could mean experimenting. Here I tried double exposures. Click to enlarge.

I am at Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center and every single person crowding the rooftop seems to be clicking away the breathtaking view with a camera or a smartphone. Gigabytes of pictures will soon be uploaded and posted in Social Media. Will I get one better picture, or at least a different one?

We are not a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters: We all have smart typewriters thanks to modern camera engineers. There will be many nice photos taken today. If not new, at least the pictures I take will be my own! Continue reading Will our photos stand out in the crowd?

Getting the Most Out of a Travel Lens

Night photo of the High Line in Manhattan
A city that never stops moving and growing: Moonrise over New York’s High Line Linear Park and future apartment buildings.

We all photographers have been through this before: Going on a trip and deciding what equipment to carry. We all want quality and flexibility but to carry the least weight. All the gear accumulated through the years makes our decision even harder.

When planning a two week’s vacation in New York City I finally decided taking along only my Nikon D810 and 24-120 f/4 VR lens. Forget about an external flash and do not even think of the tripod. Pack an extra battery, memory cards and cleaning kit and close my bag… My only other gear was my iPhone, which I used it for shooting everything I did not (or could not) shoot with the big camera… and for all the good things smartphones do for us. Continue reading Getting the Most Out of a Travel Lens